WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives on Friday voted 286-134 to pass a $1.2 trillion government financing billsending it to the Senate a few hours before the deadline to avoid turn off.
All 100 senators would need the green light to pass the bill by midnight on the final deadline. If that doesn’t happen, the government will be forced into a partial shutdown on Saturday morning. President Joe Biden urged Congress to act quickly and said he would sign the bill into law.
“It has not been a perfect process. But we must never let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DN.Y. “This is a good result for the American people.”
The draft law ActReleased early Thursday, it funds the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Labor, Defense, Health and Human Services and various other agencies. together with 459 billion dollar bill Passed earlier this month, it fully funds the federal government at $1.659 trillion through September, after months of back-and-forth calculations and negotiations.
“I am sure that we will accept and pass this bill. Whether we can avoid a government shutdown depends on a small number of Senate Republicans, and they will continue to do so through the weekend,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said on MSNBC.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the upcoming two-week recess would prompt the Senate to quickly vote and get unanimous consent to pass the bill. “This is the United States Senate,” Murkowski said. “We’re motivated by breaks.”
The legislation was discussed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., top brass from both parties and the White House. Both parties celebrated a series of victories: Democrats said they had “defeated strange cuts” proposed by Republicans and retained abortion restrictions. GOP leaders have mentioned more immigration funding for border agents and detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Against the odds, House Republicans have refocused spending on America’s most important needs, at home and abroad,” House Appropriations Chairman Kay Granger said before the vote.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, complained that members had only 24 hours to consider the bill and attacked his Republican colleagues for failing to pass the immigration restrictions they wanted, citing the killing of one person. Student of the University of Georgia It became a challenge for members of the GOP.
“My Republican colleagues cannot campaign against mass parole Use the name Laken Riley, because you’re passing a bill in his name when you fund the policy that led to his death,” Roy said on the House floor. “If any of my Republican colleagues want to campaign against open borders this year, that’s laughable. Because if you vote for this abomination of a bill today, you will be voting to fund it. You’re going to vote to fund the policies you’re going to campaign against.”
Before the vote, leaders of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus held a press conference calling the bill “capitulation,” “surrender” and “full of nonsense.”
But they did not question whether they would try to retaliate by ousting Johnson or calling for changes in the GOP leadership they blame for the end product.
“This is not a personnel discussion for us today,” Rep. Bob Goode, R-Va., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters. “Today we are talking about the bill and politics.”
Ahead of the vote, US state representative Matt Gaetz Take out Kevin McCarthyR-Calif., as speaker last year, said he did not plan to file a motion to oust Johnson.
“If we fired this speaker, we would end up with a Democrat,” Gaetz told reporters. “I’m concerned that there are Republicans at this point who will vote for Hakeem Jeffries. I really do.”
Rebecca Kaplan and Kyle Stewart contributed.